We are in a very difficult time right now, but anyone who knows me well, knows I don't stay in a place of sadness for long in regards to Jonathon's autism. I’d like to share a family story to bust me out of my funk!
Tim was in the Navy and we were traveling home to South Dakota on leave. We had decided to keep driving late into the night to take advantage of two sleeping kids. We were somewhere in Utah when we came around a corner and right in the middle of the road was a huge rock! Tim didn’t have time to swerve so we hit it. After Tim and I both got done having heart failure we felt relieved that the car seemed to be driving fine. Our relief was short lived when Tim noticed the gas gauge quickly falling closer and closer to the big orange E. The rock had punctured our gas tank! We were at least 30 miles from any town, in the middle of the night with two small children, one of whom had autism! This was not a good situation.
We made it to the next town and we were thankful! We found a convenience store and pulled into the parking lot. Our car was sitting at an angle so any remaining fuel poured out onto the pavement. We no more than got the car parked when I heard, “I don’t feel good. I think I’m gonna be sick.” Sure enough, I opened the door and Lindsey started throwing up! So, here we were at 2a.m. in a convenience store parking lot with fuel pouring out of our vehicle, a kid projectile vomiting all over the place and the other kid tired and cranky, wanting out of his car seat. We were a mess!
I must say that if you ever have to break down, Park City Utah is the place to do it! A police officer came by, took pity on us, found us a hotel room, and drove us to it. By this time it was close to 3 a.m. We smelled like fuel with an undertone of vomit. We were exhausted and looking forward to a nice comfy bed.
We checked into the hotel, got our room key, and walked down hall after hall after hall to get to this room. Tim put the key in the door, opened it… and the room was full of spare furniture! So we walked ALL the way back to the front desk. We got another room key. We walked ALL the way back through the halls. Tim put the room key in, turned it, pushed the door open and I heard him say, "Oh excuse me! I'm sorry!" just as a naked woman popped up from the bed! Lindsey’s eyes popped out of her head as she yelled “Daddy! That lady is naked!” Soooo, we walked ALL the way back to the front desk, again! We got another room key. We walked ALL the way back through the halls. This time, we paused outside the room door wondering what will door number three hold for us! Thankfully, nothing but the angelic glow of our beds!
By the time we all got washed up and hit the pillows it was 4 a.m. We were so thankful for a bed that night! The next morning we got up, the police came back, picked us up and took us to our car.
Tim thought we should see if we could get the car started, so we could just drive it to the repair shop and not have to have it towed. I got in, turned the key and rrrrrrr ,nothing. I try again rrrrrrr, nothing. I decide to try one more time. As the car is protesting, and I was starting to lose my sunny disposition, I received directions from a little voice out of the back seat… “OPEN THE THROTTLE! AND KEEP IT OPEN!!” Jonathon was echoing the scene from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang where Truly Scrumptious is trying to start her car but failing miserably!
He has a way of bringing a smile to our faces at the most stressful of times!
P.S. We made it home safely to South Dakota!
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